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Bombing victim loved life
ATLANTA (CNN) -- The death of Alice Hawthorne cast a pall over the Summer Olympics.
She was the only person to die from the bombing in Centennial Olympic Park, although a Turkish television cameraman died of a heart attack while rushing to videotape the aftermath of the downtown explosion.
To those who knew her, the 44-year-old Hawthorne, an entrepreneur and cable TV customer service and sales representative from Albany, Georgia, represented much of what was good about life -- determination, generosity, spunk.
The mother of two daughters drove to the park in downtown Atlanta after work on July 26 as a birthday present to her 14-year-old, Fallon Stubbs. The two were dancing at an outdoor concert by a rhythm-and-blues band when the pipe bomb exploded early the next morning.
"If somebody went to all the trouble to bring the Olympics to Atlanta, the least I can do is go," the outgoing Hawthorne was quoted as telling friends before the trip.
Deadly shrapnel pelted Hawthorne and injured Fallon and 110 other people. A doctor and nurse tried to revive Hawthorne at the scene, but she was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital. Fallon was hospitalized briefly.
Hawthorne, a Georgia native, grew up in the Atlanta suburb of Douglasville. Her parents divorced, and her mother, a cleaning woman, encouraged her children's aspirations.
After graduating from high school, Hawthorne moved to Albany to attend Albany State College (now University), where she earned her marketing degree -- despite several interruptions -- in 1994. She served in the Army and Air Force.
Fallon was the daughter of Hawthorne's first husband, John Stubbs; an older daughter, Adoria Minor, was from another relationship. Hawthorne and Stubbs divorced in 1984, and she married John Hawthorne Jr. in 1987.
Hawthorne worked at TCI of Georgia. In 1993, she opened Fallon's Hot Dog & Ice Cream Parlor, fulfilling her longtime dream of owning a business. It was named after her daughter.
Hawthorne's willingness to cheerfully help others was one of her striking qualities, those who knew her said.
She volunteered at Fallon's school, the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce and the American Legion Post 512. Ironically, as a goodwill ambassador for the Chamber, one of her last civic contributions was to organize and publicize the running of the Olympic torch through Albany.
Georgia Gov. Zell Miller and Andrew Young, co-chairman of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, attended the memorial service held for her in Albany. The Olympic flag was flown at half-staff, and world leaders offered condolences.
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